Watch This: deadmau5 shares 30 minutes of advice for upcoming artists

Deadmau5 continues to impress in the lead up to his next album with killer releases and solid offerings on his mau5trap imprint. Despite being one of the most coveted producers working today, Joel Zimmerman has largely blazed his own trail to global superstardom and constantly eschewed mainstream expectations.

In a recently uncovered video ripped from his live stream, Zimmerman shares intimate details about his life story and his start as a novice lurking “how to” guides on Geocities pages. Before current DAWs like FL Studio and Ableton were even a thing, Zimmerman recalls walking into a local computer store and flat out asking the staff “You guys know anything about making music with a computer?” In spite of his naivety, Zimmerman repeatedly points to interactions like these as the key to his advancement in the scene.

Zimmerman also maintains that a focus on ‘in person interaction’ is the best advice he can give to upstart producers via an anecdotal recounting of his first meeting with a then unknown Skrillex. In a moment that has become electronic music lore, the young producer passed Zimmerman a copy of Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites on a USB key during a chance encounter at a HARD party in LA. Says the producer of such moments: “Connections made in person are a million billion times more valuable than a spam link.”